{finding joy in the journey...}: Light Schooling + MRI (Dec 10-15 Recap)

We had a very light week of planned school, however homeschooling is a lifestyle for us, so there's always something to learn. I didn't write much in the way of lesson plans, yet the children did a great deal of reading, math games, and Christmas-y crafts.

I did print some inspiration sheets for Christmas craft ideas so that they had a guide if they wanted it.

Monday was our busy day, as always. We had Story Hour at the library. It was Christmas and snow themed and the crafts kept everyone happily business for over a half an hour. The children traced and cut out their hand to make a Christmas tree from their hand print, and then did a cotton ball snowman.

Joslynn is a good friend to Natalee, and helps make sure she knows what she's supposed to do. Here she's sticking the eyes on Natalee's snowman because Natalee wasn't able to get them picked up.

Natalee...

Xavier... (they ran out of cotton, but he was happy to color his in)

Ameliya...

Zayden (I think his other eye accidentally transferred to the bottom of N's snowman)...

We checked out a TON of books (no, literally, the bag feels like it weighs a ton!) to help get us to the Christmas holiday season. This was the last Story Hour until after the new year.

Mondays are also art and ballet!

The children finished their two week art journaling project this week and they are quite lovely. There were a lot of steps, but it was fun to watch them work through the processes to get to the final product.

Natalee...

Xavier...

Chelsie and I set up a little art table for our preschool crew and they made sweet little holiday pictures, too.

Ameliya's...

Zayden's...

Tuesday started with this...

Natalee does her Bible study when she wakes everyday, just like I do. Look at the example she has made for her little brother, who grabbed his picture Bible and climbed up beside her.

Be still my heart.

The children colored some ornaments for the library and took their time, making them lovely.

More free reading...

...and piano practice/piano lessons for Natalee.

Tuesday was as beautiful as the weather gets in December around here. I swept off the porch, shook rugs, and made sure EVERYONE got plenty of sun and fresh air.

I didn't even bring them in for lunch, I took sandwiches, veggies, and fruit to them.

Our friends, Joslynn and Nora came over to play for the afternoon and the kids scarcely needed me at all, except to supervise and offer drinks occasionally. (wink)

Zayden has been working on a new song (ha).

Wednesday was PJ night at JAM. We always shower after JAM, so I let the kids wear PJ's all day since they'd be taking them off before bed. We needed to rid some energy, so Cosmic Kids Christmas Yoga it was!

Zayden had a belated birthday present from Nannie and Vance to open. Nannie didn't even know the shirt had a cape! Winning without realizing it.

My brain felt very distracted this week, so Mike was instrumental in helping us remember to do Jesse Tree each night.

When Mike read that Boaz's mother was Rahab (best know as the prostitute), I commented that I didn't remember knowing that before. Natalee, of course, did know it and then spouted of a string of lineage that wow'd me - so I made her do it again for the camera, and then I googled it to make sure she was right!

Thursday started slow. The kids all slept past 8 and it was after 10 before I got out of my PJS (though I'd been up!). The big kids played Moby for math and did about an hour of free reading. We were just kind of still....quiet... we need those days occasionally. We won't begin another formal Science unit until after the new year (praying about the best way to buy the new books we need!), and we are way ahead in History, so this is a good few weeks for us to slow down and have some more free choice in our days.
I also have quite a lot of learning and paperwork to do to get Natalee the services and things she needs so I'm focused on that right now, and I'm not sleeping well at nights (stress) so I'm a little sluggish during the day. The privilege of homeschooling is that we can accommodate it to work with our schedules and moods.
Natalee invited me in to to listen to her play her Christmas piano songs when she practiced.

Ameliya did an interview of me and pretended to write my answers down. It was actually quite funny. She asked me one million questions and stayed very professional.

Friday was Natalee's scheduled brain MRI up at the Children's Hospital. Since we didn't have an appt with the doctor afterwards, Mike stayed home with the other kids and my dad came along with us. I was grateful for his company and his support.

We did not realize Natalee had to have an IV and contrast so we were ill prepared for that mentally. She did great through everything. I was very proud of her.

Child Life was amazing, as always. They brought this Lego MRI and showed Natalee how everything would look. They also had her listen to recordings of all the sounds the machine would make so she'd be prepared. She got to watch Netflix during the actual procedure and she laid very still.

Saturday was my birthday. Mike took the children out for awhile so I could spend some time alone at home. I made cookie dough, wrapped presents, did some tidying - nothing major, but it was nice to not have anyone need me for awhile. We hung out at Mike's folks' for most of the rest of the day, visiting and snuggling babies.

My cousin Patricia with Isa and Kea with Patricia's baby, Quinn.